quote:According to international think tanks, China and America will engage in a war in the next ten years over the energy – oil and natural gas. China is slowly getting ready to face the only military superpower of the world – America. They are cutting their infantry numbers drastically and making the Peoples Liberation Army totally high tech with gravity driven bunker-busting bombs, advanced missile sand so on.

According to media sources from Beijing, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) plans to cut 200,000 military personnel by the end of 2005, the PLA Daily reported on July 14. The report said the military is carrying out extensive restructuring by adding new units and cutting outdated ones to increase combat effectiveness and combat-command capabilities. The restructuring calls for new lows in the number of officers at PLA headquarters and functional branches at various command levels, and for some low-level officer posts to be transferred to soldiers or civilian personnel. The reductions in personnel will decrease PLA troops from 2.5 million to 2.3 million.

According to international think tanks, China plans to spend lot of its foreign exchange reserves (ironically much of it earned from United States) in defense research and development of advanced weapon systems. The high tech PLA will be in place by 2007. Another interesting thing happening is that China is developing a strong special operations force similar to that of America ready to go behind enemy lines and operate from there.

quote: A top U.S. military officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, accused Russia and China on Thursday of “trying to bully” smaller Central Asian nations that host U.S. troops and cooperate with Washington in fighting terrorism, Associated Press reported.

Once again our republican government has been bribed by f@#$% lobbyists while scrapping crucial national security precautions against China. This in light of a Chinese general actually threatening the use of nukes against us?

It just goes to show that national security always takes a back seat to money with the neo-cons. How the f*** can people vote for these ingrates?

The House on Thursday rejected legislation giving the president the authority to bring sanctions against European companies that sell arms to China after U.S. business groups came out strongly against it.

In a dramatic turnaround, more than 100 House members changed their votes from yes to no following a last-minute lobbying effort by opponents.

The final vote was 215-203, well short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure for what normally are non-controversial bills.

Earlier during the roll call, more than 330 members had registered yes votes, but several lawmakers said people started changing votes after learning of opposition from the business community.

quote:
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, said the bill was meant to "persuade other countries that there will be severe consequences if they fail to respect the security interests of their most important ally, the United States of America."

quote:Russia and China Call for War Crime Trials against America as US Military Report Details Shocking Abuse of POW’s not Seen since Nazi Germany

Reports airing on last evenings newscasts, from both Russia and China, have detailed the shocking abuse the United States Military Leaders have ordered for their Prisoners of War. Not since the Nazi and Japanese Regimes of World War II have such shocking reports been reported about a civilized Nation treating their Prisoners of War in such a wholesale violation of the Geneva Convention has the world seen.

For the exact and terrifying details of this abuse we can read as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting News Service in their report titled "Guantanamo inmate forced to wear bra, act like a dog" and which says;

"A suspected terrorist was forced to wear a bra, dance with another man and behave like a dog during his interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military investigators said Wednesday. The investigators called for Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to be reprimanded because he did not oversee the interrogation.

The chief investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, said FBI agents had raised their concerns to Miller about the treatment of Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Schmidt said he should have monitored the situation, but that he apparently took no action.

Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said he overruled the recommendation that Miller be reprimanded, saying he will instead refer the matter to the Army's inspector general. Craddock said Miller did not violate any U.S. laws or policies.

Investigators described their findings before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday. They were looking into allegations by FBI agents who say they witnessed abusive interrogation techniques at the Guantanamo prison.

Schmidt said that to get al-Qahtani to talk, interrogators told him his mother and sisters were whores, forced him to wear a bra, forced him to wear a thong on his head, forced him to dance with a male interrogator, told him he was homosexual and said that other prisoners knew it.

He was also strip searched, threatened with dogs, forced to stand naked in front of women and forced him onto a leash, to act like a dog. But Schmidt said no torture occurred and that Al-Qahtani was provided food, water and medical care.

Al-Qahtani had tried to enter the U.S. in August 2001 but was turned away by an immigration agent at the Orlando, Fla., airport. Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was in the airport at the same time, officials have said.

In other cases, investigators found that: A female interrogator smeared fake menstrual blood on a prisoner. A Navy officer threatened one prisoner by saying he would go after his family. An FBI agent said a prisoner was bound on the head with duct tape, his mouth covered, because he was chanting verses from the Qur'an."

Most surprising about these reports are that the American peoples are being kept from knowing about these atrocities, even though they will be the very peoples brought before the various International Tribunals now being set up to judge and administer their Nation should the Americans be defeated in this War.

Like drunken men these American peoples continue to ignore these atrocities being committed in their name, and by doing so become willing accomplishes to the actions of their barbaric Military Leaders.

Where once the Light of Liberty had shown upon these American peoples, today the Darkness of Satan himself has truly descended.

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) - China not only is massing forces facing Taiwan, but developing new long-range missiles and acquiring an arsenal of sophisticated jets and warships in an ambitious arms build-up, the United States said on Tuesday.

Over the "next several years", Beijing will deploy a DF-31 road-mobile, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile and a JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Pentagon said in an annual report to Congress on Chinese military power.

The current military focus by the People's Liberation Army stresses protecting Chinese borders and waters and intimidating Taiwan, according to the 44-page report, which lists a broad range of new armaments from fighter jets to submarines.

Here is a breakdown of some of weapons listed and a look at efforts by Beijing's huge PLA ground forces to slim down and mobilize:

Ballistic missiles:

About 650-730 mobile CSS-6 and CSS-7 short-range missiles in coastal garrisons opposite Taiwan. Deployment is increasing by about 100 missiles a year, including improved range and accuracy in newer versions.

The military is also modernizing its longer-range missile fleet with newer, more survivable versions including the mobile DF-31 and JL-2.

Air Power:

More than 700 aircraft within un-refueled operational range of Taiwan. Many are outdated, but Beijing continues acquiring sleek fighters from Russia, including the Su-30MKK multi-role and Su-Mk2 maritime strike aircraft.

New jet acquisitions are augmenting previous deliveries of Su-27 fighters and China is building its own version of the Su-27SK, the F-11, under agreement with Moscow.

The PLA is also acquiring from abroad, or developing at home, advanced precision strike weapons such as cruise missiles and air-to-air, air-to-surface and radar-destroying munitions.

Naval Power:

Includes 64 major surface warships, 55 attack submarines, 40 medium and heavy amphibious lift vessels and about 50 coastal missile patrol craft. Two-thirds of the fleet is located in the East and South Sea fleets.

China has deployed two new Russian-made Sovremennyy class guided-missile destroyers in the East Sea Fleet and an additional two are under contract. All are fitted with advanced anti-ship cruise missiles and air defense systems.

China's Song class diesel electric submarine has entered serial production. Last year, China launched a new diesel submarine, the Yuan class, and it is expected to field its next-generation nuclear attack submarine, the Type 093. this year.

Beijing is also acquiring eight additional Kilo class diesel electric submarines from Russia in addition to four previously-purchased boats. The new subs will include advanced SS-N-27 anti-ship cruise missiles and and wire-guided and wake-seeking torpedoes.

Ground Forces:

China has 375,000 troops deployed to three military regions opposite Taiwan and has been upgrading those units with amphibious armor and military vehicles, including tanks.

The PLA is expected to complete another round of downsizing -- slashing 200,000 troops by the end of this year -- to bring the size of the PLA to about 2.3 million, according to official statistics. But the pentagon said paramilitary, police and reserves boost that figure to 3.2 million.

China's 2004 Defense White Paper noted that China can also draw upon more than 10 million organized militia members.

The Army acquired additional M1-17/171 medium-lift helicopters from Russia last year and is developing its own attack helicopter, the Z-10, which could enter service in 2014.

quote: China's Military Build-Up is Tipping Balance Against Taiwan: Pentagon

China's Ming submarine fleet

Washington (AFP) — China is building up its military at a pace and scope that is tipping the military balance against Taiwan and could pose a credible threat to modern militaries operating in the region, a Pentagon report on Chinese military power said Tuesday.

The annual report to Congress said China's actual defense spending is estimated to be two to three times more than acknowledged by Beijing, or up to 90 billion dollars this year, the largest in Asia and the third largest in the world after the United States and Russia.

"China does not now face a direct threat from another nation," the report said. "Yet, it continues to invest heavily in its military, particularly in programs designed to improve power projection."

"The pace and scope of China's military build-up are, already, such as to put regional military balances at risk," said the 45-page report, entitled "The Military Power of the People's Republic of China."

It said China has deployed 650 to 730 mobile short range ballistic missiles in garrisons opposite Taiwan, and is adding to them at a rate of about 100 missiles a year, it said. Newer versions of the missiles have improved range and accuracy.

"The cross-Strait military balance appears to be shifting toward Beijing as a result of China's sustained economic growth, growing diplomatic leverage, and improvements in the PLA's military capabilities," the report said.

quote: China's military put its new guided missile destroyers on display last week, disclosing its two new warships that are equipped with Aegis-type battle management systems.

Photo: Two new Luyang II guided missile destroyers are part of China's naval builduup.

The two Luyang II guided missile destroyers are Beijing's first Aegis-type ships. The ships are currently undergoing sea trials.

U.S. intelligence officials say China stole the technology for the Aegis battle management system by setting up a front company in the United States that became a subcontractor for the Aegis system manufacturer.

The Chinese also showed two other new guided missile destroyers, known as Luyang I.

Both types of destroyers are equipped with Russian military equipment and weapons, including missiles, as well as indigenous Chinese anti-ship missiles.

The four warships are part of China's military buildup that U.S. officials say is designed for more than just a Taiwan conflict. The Chinese are building a deep-water navy able to project power, especially against the United States.

quote:China appears to be taking a page from U.S. doctrine and working to improve its information warfare capabilities, according to a comprehensive DoD report on Chinese military power released July 19.

In 2004, China introduced a new term in the country's military doctrine: "local wars under conditions of informationalization."

In DoD's 2005 report to Congress on China's military power, defense officials explain this term refers to the People's Liberation Army's "emphasis on information technology as a force multiplier."

A senior defense official, speaking on background, said the Chinese watch advances in U.S. doctrine carefully. "Every time we're involved in a campaign, there's a spate of articles (in China) analyzing it," the official said. "Sometimes they put themselves in the shoes of our opponent; sometimes they try to see, 'What can we emulate that the Americans have done?'"

The official said the Chinese military has a long way to go in C4ISR -- command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance -- but they're clearly doing research and development into such capabilities.

China is also using advances in C4ISR to project military power farther from its own borders. Over the long term, the report states, China's advances in these areas "could enable Beijing to identify, target, and track foreign military activities deep into the western Pacific and provide, potentially, hemispheric coverage."

China introduced the term "local wars under conditions of informationalization" in its December 2004 Defense White Paper to describe the type of war the PLA must be prepared to fight and win.

U.S. defense officials are still working to understand the implications of the new concept. But the July 19 DoD report on China power states the term appears to sum up "China's experiences and assessments of the implications of the revolution in military affairs -- primarily the impact of information technology and knowledge-based warfare on the battlefield."

Through studying U.S. and other allied operations in the past decade, the PLA is beginning to understand the importance of joint development in C4ISR capabilities. The report states that such ambitions can be traced to lessons learned from U.S. and allied operations since the Persian Gulf War. Still, China is working to overcome an overall lack of joint operations and operational experience in general.

China's 2004 White Paper shows that Chinese officials understand they're on the short end of an expanding technology gap, according to the U.S. defense report. China's leaders, including President Hu Jintao, have ordered the PLA to pursue "leap ahead" technologies and "informationalized" capabilities to increase weapons' mobility, firepower and precision, the U.S. report states.

The report quotes from a May 2003 article by PLA Deputy Chief of the General Staff Xiong Guangkai, stating that the PLA should push forward "military reform with Chinese characteristics."

"We should study and draw on the experiences and lessons of various countries in making military changes, including all the local wars fought under high-tech conditions," Xiong reportedly wrote, "but we should not mechanically copy other countries' patterns of military changes."

quote:Iran, Sudan, Venezuela and Syria - nations shunned by the United States as nuclear threats, insurgent havens or human rights violators - are increasingly being wooed by China and India in a race for oil and influence that is challenging Washington on the energy and security fronts.

The most recent U.S. concerns have focused on China's bid for Unocal Corp., America's ninth largest oil company. American congressmen, senators and former Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey have described it as a threat to U.S. national security.

But less high-profile manoeuvre by the two Asian powerhouses are also raising questions.

Besides their involvement in energy projects worth billions of dollars in countries America views with concern, India and China also have bought into Russia's oil and gas sector. And Beijing, with Moscow's apparent blessing, is reaching out to energy-rich former Soviet republics in central Asia where the Americans have military outposts.

President George W. Bush this week said America's relationship with China is "a good relationship, but it's a complex relationship."

He also feted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House in clear recognition of that country's growing significance.

The all-out energy offensive by the two Asian powers was documented this year by the National Intelligence Council, the U.S. government think-thank that advises the CIA and senior U.S. policy-makers.

"The likely emergence of China and India as new major global players . . . will transform the geopolitical landscape," the report said.

"In the same way that commentators refer to the 1900s as the 'American Century,' the early 21st century may be seen as the time when some in the developing world, led by India and China, come into their own."

The report also said energy demand through 2020, especially by India and China, "will have substantial impacts on geopolitical relations."

In Asia's former Soviet republics, such moves threaten to hurt U.S. interests by skewing alliances in a key part of the world on the doorstep of the oil-rich Caspian basin and also close to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The need for a U.S. military toehold - established during the Afghanistan offensive - is already being questioned by the governments of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry last month said that other than for overthrowing Afghanistan's Taliban regime, "any other prospects for a U.S. military presence . . . were not considered by the Uzbek side." And a week ago, Kyrgyzstan's president, Kurmanek Bakiyev, said it was time to "begin discussing the necessity of the U.S. military forces' presence."

The Shanghai Co-operation Organization, a regional alliance led by China and Russia, this month called on the U.S. to set a date for withdrawing forces from the two ex-Soviet republics. General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it an attempt to "bully" the two U.S. allies - a charge Moscow sharply rejected.

Strategic manoeuvering has always been a part of world rivalries and most nations aren't that choosy - Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, remains crucial to Washington despite its human rights record. But the imperative of making friends with energy-rich nations has grown over the past two years as oil prices rise and consumption grows.

Much of the oil - a third of world output - still is pumped by the Vienna-based Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose powerhouse is Saudi Arabia.

But billions of barrels of the world's reserves are in countries hostile to the U.S. such as Iran, OPEC's second largest oil producer, where U.S. sanctions have locked out American oil companies. Billions more are in countries and regions with uncertain loyalties.

Chinese oil demand now is second only to America's and within 20 years is it is expected to increase to 21 million barrels a day. That's what America consumes now - and most of it will be imported.

India's oil consumption over the same period is expected to double to a daily 5.3 million barrels - also mostly imported.

Beijing is also casting a wider oil net because the U.S. presence in Iraq - thought to have the world's second-largest oil reserves - has derailed Chinese attempts to establish a toehold there.

Chinese and Indian investments in countries and regions of U.S. concern include:

-A 50-per cent Chinese stake in the sprawling Yadavaran oil fields of Iran, which the United States accuses of trying to make nuclear weapons. The Chinese last year also signed deals worth an estimated $70 billion US for 228.8 million tonnes of Iranian liquefied natural gas.

-Majority Chinese control in the consortium dominating the oil industry of Sudan, which once sheltered Osama bin Laden and whose government is accused of human rights abuses linked to massacres in the Darfur conflict.

-Chinese ownership of 60 per cent of a major Kazakhstan oil and gas enterprise and plans to build a pipeline for Kazakh crude into China.

-India's multi-billion dollar project to pipe in Iranian gas via Pakistan - a plan criticized this month by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

-Billion-dollar investments by India's main oil and gas enterprise in far-flung projects that include Syria - accused by Washington of failing to prevent insurgents from crossing its border into Iraq and of suppressing democracy in Lebanon. India has also signed a pipeline deal with gas-rich Myanmar's hard-line military junta.

-Chinese and Indian interest in Venezuela, the fourth-largest U.S. oil supplier, whose president, Hugo Chavez, is a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy. Chavez is trying to rewrite concessions to U.S. oil companies and has invited China and India to participate in oil exploration.

Both Beijing and New Delhi deny that their efforts constitute a threat to the United States.

Alluding to concerns about Iran, the Chinese Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press that "China's development of friendly relations with another country. . . won't harm any other country's interests."

A ministry statement said Beijing is "devoted to developing constructive and cooperative relations with the United States." And Sanjaya Baru, the Indian prime minister's media adviser, says the pipeline is nothing more than a "bilateral issue between. . . India and Iran."

Gary Sick, a member of the U.S. National Security Council under former president Jimmy Carter, says sanctions on Iran effectively means embargoing Iranian oil.

"The Chinese approving a resolution that imposes a sanction on (Iran's) oil - I don't see it happening," he said.

China is building up its nuclear forces as part of a secret strategy targeting the United States, according to a former Chinese diplomat.
China's strategy calls for "proactive defense," and senior Chinese Communist Party leaders think that building nuclear arms is the key to countering U.S. power in Asia and other parts of the world, said Chen Yonglin, a diplomat who defected to Australia two months ago.
A recent comment by a Chinese general shows that Beijing's leaders are prepared to launch "a pre-emptive attack on the country considered a huge threat to China," Mr. Chen said.
Chinese Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu told reporters two weeks ago that China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against "hundreds" of U.S. cities if a conflict breaks out over Taiwan.
The former diplomat, who until recently was posted to the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, said the number of Chinese nuclear warheads is a closely guarded secret.
Asked about a Pentagon report revealing that China has 20 nuclear warheads that can reach almost all of the United States, Mr. Chen said, "We don't know the exact number."
"Everything about nuclear weapons is held by a very limited number of people," he said. "Even sometime vice ministers may not know because it is strictly controlled by the general staff and central party leaders."
The Pentagon report to Congress made public last week stated that China is "qualitatively and quantitatively improving its strategic missile force."
"It is fielding more survivable missiles capable of targeting India, Russia, virtually all of the United States and the Asia-Pacific theater as far south as Australia and New Zealand," the report said.
China's nuclear weapons are developed and built in secret under the direction of a company Mr. Chen identified as the Nuclear Energy Company. The company builds both civilian nuclear-power stations and warheads for missiles and bombers.
"It sounds like a nongovernment company, but it is totally top secret," he said.
Mr. Chen, who is visiting the United States and testified before a House committee last week, said that during internal discussions among Communist Party and government leaders and military commanders, military leaders often have urged going to war against Taiwan, a self-governing island -- also known as the Republic of China -- that broke with the mainland in 1949.

"I've heard a lot about the results of those meetings, and most of the military forces leaders advocate the use of force the earlier the better to solve the Taiwan issue," Mr. Chen said.
He said China's long-term strategy toward the United States was outlined by the late communist leader Deng Xiaoping in the phrase "hide our capabilities; bide our time."
"That means don't draw any attention of the Western world -- and especially the United States, to what China is doing," Mr. Chen said.
China's leaders fear the current U.S. policy of engagement with China could shift to one of "containing" China, he said.
"If the policy of the United States changes to containment, there will be no Olympic Games, there will be no business and there will be no peaceful rise," he said.